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Problems in the 
Development of Washington 



Bv CHARLES MOORE 

Chairman o\ the National Commission of Fine Arts 



REPRINTED FROM THE 

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS 

THE OCTAGON, WASHINGTON, D. C. 

MAY, 1917 



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Land Selected by President Washington as the Site for the Federal City. — By Courtesy of the Library of Congress 



Problems in the Development of Washington 



By CHARLES MOORE 
Chairman of the National Commission of Kine Arts 



AS the development of Washington proceeds 
according to the original plan ot the city 
made by L'Enfant in 1790 and extended 
by the Commission of 1901, certain special 
problems arise which require decision in accord- 
ance with the general lines of the plan. 

The Capitol Group 

The House and Senate office buildings 
have been constructed with the view of 
creating about the Capitol a group of 
buildings more or less connected with the 
legislative branch of the Government. Lands 
between the Capitol and Union Station have 
been purchased, and these lands have been 



cleared of most of the buildings that formerly 
occupied them. The present conditions are 
unsightly. Congress should decide as to how 
this space shall be utilized, whether to enhance 
the dignity and impressiveness of the approach 
to the Capitol by creating a series ot splendid 
gardens, or to provide sites tor public build- 
ings. When this main question shall have been 
decided, a plan should be made for this im- 
portant area. Congress should also determine 
whether the stoneyards and insigniticant build- 
ings shall be cleared from the spaces south and 
west of the Capitol grounds, so as to put an 
end to the squalid conditions now existing 
about that great national building. 



213 



THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS 



The Supreme Court shows no disposition to 
urge Congress to build a building for its own 
special use. When the increase in its working 
force and the consequent demands for space 
shall compel the Court to quit the Capitol, a 
building corresponding with the Library of 
Congress should be built. It is a question as to 
whether the Maryland Avenue axis should be 
blocked by this building as the Pennsylvania 
Avenue axis has been blocked by the Library 
of Congress, or whether two buildings should 
occupy the space between North Capitol Street 
and B Street North, thus leaving Maryland 
Avenue free. 

The Mall 

Last year the Senate passed a bill to extend 
the present Botanic Gardens by taking in an 
additional section of the Mall. The bill tailed 
in the House, but it has been reintroduced in 
the Senate, where it has the backing of two 
influential Senators. Should the bill become a 
law, the proper development of the Mall will 
be retarded for many years. 



To secure such development the Government 
paid the Pennsylvania Railroad Ji, 500,000 to 
remove its tracks from the Mall, and when he 
consented to such removal, President Cassatt 
expressly stated that he did so in order that the 
Mall plan might be carried out. 

Also, to provide for carrying out the Mall 
plan, the Agricultural Department buildings 
were relocated after the excavations for founda- 
tions had been begiin; and the buildings have 
been constructed so as to require the lower 
grades involved in the plan. 

The National Museum has been located with 
reference to the new Mall axis; likewise the 
Freer Gallery. Trees have been planted, and 
grading has been begun in accordance with the 
Mall design. 

Congress located the Grant Memorial at the 
head of the Mall in such manner as to force the 
removal of the present Botanic Garden to a 
new and adequate site. The two occupancies are 
inconsistent in extreme. The Botanic Garden 
in any location between the Capitol and the 
Washington Monument cannot be more than a 






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Plan Prepared bv Peter Chari.es L'Enfant Under the Direction of President Washington and Secretary Jefferson 
FOR THE Federal City.— By Courtesy of the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds 

214 




Development of the Central Composition of the L'Enfant Flan by the Commission of 1901. — Shows the Capitol sur- 
rounded by buildings related to legislative activities, and the White House surrounded by departmental buildings; the main axis 
beginning with the Capitol, extending through the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial; the White House axis beginning 
with the White House, extending through the Washington Monument gardens, and ending with a site for a great memorial yet to be 
determined upon; also shows the proposed memorial bridge to Arlington and the location of public buildings south of Pennsylvania 
Avenue. — Courtesv of the National Commission ot Fine Arts. 




Photograph of the Model Prepared to Show the .Arrangement of Buildings about the Capitol, and Open .Approach 
to the Capitol from the West Where the Botanic Garden now Stands, and the Arrangement of Museum Buildings along 
THE Mall. — Courtesy of the National Commission of Fine Arts. 



215 



THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS 



makeshift as a garden, but it can play the part 
ot dog in the manger and delay a systematic 
development of the space as a great park con- 
nection between the Capitol and the White 
House. 

It is essential that this question be settled 
right and at once. 

The Monument Grounds 

Nothing has been done to open the White 
House cross axis of the Mall or to create an 
appropriate setting for the Washington Monu- 
ment. This is a subject which may well receive 
attention from the Washington Monument 
Association at its annual meeting on January i, 
next. There is no need of haste in carrying out 
the plans, but at least the subject should be 
discussed as one of the things to be done in the 
future. As the landscape treatment leading to 
the Lincoln Memorial progresses, the necessity 
tor an adequate setting tor the Monument will 
be forced on the attention of the public — and 
the plan for the terraced gardens shown in the 
plan ot I go I will become apparent. 

The Executive Group 

When plans were prepared for buildings to 
accommodate the departments of State, Jus- 
tice, and Commerce, the area along Fifteenth 
Street, between Pennsylvania Avenue and B 
Street North, was found to be too small for the 
three buildings. Consequently, the State De- 
partment was forced over into the Mall. This 
location never was sanctioned by Congress; 
and it never should be. The buildings along the 
Mall should be of a museum character — struc- 
tures housing collections in which the public 
primarily is interested. 

The plan of 1901 calls for the location of 
departmental buildings on three sides of Lafay- 
ette Square, thus surrounding the White House 
with structures devoted to executive work. At 
one time plans were prepared for a building for 
the combined use of the departments of State and 
of Justice, to be located on the square west of 
Lafayette Square, but there was opposition to 
any combination. Each department desired its 
own building. The State Department build- 
ing, as recently planned, would occupy this 
entire block, and then would accommodate 
functions too large for the White House. This 
location should be adhered to for reasons of 



convenience, both to the department in its 
intimate relations to the White House and to 
the people having business therewith, whether 
callers or members of the clerical force. Such 
has been the uniform opinion of State Depart- 
ment officials. The Government already owns 
the old Corcoran Art Gallery and occupies 
other property situated in this square. The 
character of the occupancy of the remainder 
is now such as to enable its purchase on favor- 
able terms. The project should be started at 
once. 

Again, the Government owns the corner on 
Pennsylvania Avenue and Madison Place, 
opposite the Treasury Department, and such 
is the pressure for building-space that probably 
the site will be built up before long. Any build- 
ing erected on this site should be designed in 
such manner as both to preserve the dominance 
of the White House and also to become a por- 
tion of a single building to occupy the entire 
frontage extending from Pennsylvania Avenue 
to H Street. 

If the Government should now take over the 
site of the Arlington Hotel and erect thereon a 
temporary building, in time it could obtain the 
other frontage along H Street to Sixteenth. 
In any event, the scheme for a group of execu- 
tive buildings around Lafayette Square always 
should be kept in mind. 

The Area South of Pennsylvania Avenue 

Pennsylvania Avenue will always remain the 
great thoroughfare of Washington. That por- 
tion of the Avenue between the Capitol and the 
Treasury Department offers appropriate loca- 
tions for the many buildings which maintain 
relations with both the legislative and the 
executive branches of the Government. The 
market site is fixed by the conditions imposed 
at the time the market was created, and in case 
the market shall be removed the land will 
revert to the heirs ot the original owners. It 
would be unwise, perhaps, to change these con- 
ditions. B Street North, however, should be 
extended with its full width from Sixth Street 
to Pennsylvania Avenue, thus giving the Mall 
its proper outlines. 

The Lincoln Memorial 

The main planting between the Washington 
Monument and the Lincoln Memorial has been 



216 



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View from the Smithsonian Tower about 1878. — Shows the uncompleted Washington Monument and the overflowed lands 
which have been filled in to make Potomac Park — about 740 acres in all. The view shows the grounds of the then Bureau of Agriculture 
in the foreground. Courtesv of the National Commission of Fine •■^rts. 




View Showing the Grant Memorial, the Botamc Garden, and the Bartholdi Fointain. — In order to give a proper set- 
ting to the Grant Memorial, both greenhouses and fountain must be removed to other locations. The vista from the Capitol to the 
Washington Monument is yet to be developed. Courtesy of the National Commission of Fine Arts. 



217 



THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS 



put in, but it will take several years before the 
trees obtain a sufficient growth to impress the 
public with the general scheme of treatment. 
The design for the grounds calls for a reflecting 
basin extending from Seventeenth Street to the 
Lincoln Memorial, a distance of 2,300 feet. This 
basin, when completed, will be one of the most 
charming features of the Mall system. It is 
essential to the beauty of the plan, and the 
sooner it is created the more pleasure the present 
generation will get from the composition. In the 
erection of memorials in this portion of Poto- 
mac Park, extreme care should be exercised in 
order that no design inharmonious with the 
great monument to Lincoln shall be permitted 
in its proximity. This harmony should be his- 
torical as well as artistic. 

The Memorial Bridge 

Very serious problems arise in the treatment 
of the proposed bridge to connect the Lincoln 
Memorial with Arlington. There is a question, 
for example, as to whether the bridge should 
extend on the axis of the Washington Monu- 
ment and the Lincoln Memorial, reaching a 
terminus above Arlington. There is another 
question as to whether the bridge proper should 
end at Analostan Island and not be brought 
to the main land. The channel between Analo- 
stan Island and the Virginia bank of the 
Potomac carries very little water and is in pro- 
cess of being filled up. If the bridge is con- 
structed for so great a length as from the Lin- 
coln Memorial to the Virginia shore, it will 
require a very elaborate treatment on the 
slopes of Arlington in order to make a proper 
termination. On the other hand, if the bridge 
is kept comparatively short, only a simple and 
naturalistic treatment of the Virginia approach 
would be required. 

Potomac Parkways 

Congress has provided for the connection 
between Potomac Park and Rock Creek Park 
along the river to Rock Creek and thence up the 
Creek to the Zoological Park. Most of the 
difficulties in the way of this improvement 
have been overcome, and the long-cherished 
hopes of the citizens of the District interested 
in the development of lower Rock Creek are 
about to be realized. The machinery is in such 
good working order at the present time that 



Congress may safely increase the appropria- 
tions, with the assurance that the money will be 
economically and efficiently spent. 

The Washington Channel Boulevartl 

Serious indeed is the problem of a boulevard 
connection along the bank of the Washington 
Channel from Potomac Park to the War College 
and thence along the Anacostia to the new water 
park now under construction. This connection 
was indicated but was not adequately worked 
out in the plan of 1901, because of uncertainties 
as to ownership of the waterfront. The Govern- 
ment now has undisputed title to the entire 
frontage on the Washington Channel, and 
nothing but the will of the powers-that-be 
stands in the way of creating on the east a 
parkway connection quite as necessary to the 
proper development of Washington as is the 
Potomac Park and Rock Creek Parkway on the 
west, for which Congress is spending several 
millions of dollars. Indeed the creation of the 
latter makes inperative the construction of the 
Washington Channel Boulevard, in order to 
complete the parkway circuit on the south. 
Now that a comprehension of this tact is spread- 
ing among persons concerned with new projects 
in this locality, there are indications of certain 
revisions of plans in order to accommodate these 
large considerations. No structure should be 
permitted along this waterfront which is so 
located as to encroach upon Water Street or so 
designed as to be unsightly from the sports- 
fields and driveways in East Potomac Park. 

Memorials in Washington 

During the first half-century of Washington 
the city got along without any out-of-door art. 
It was in 1853 that General Jackson mounted his 
charger in front of the White House. This is the 
oldest equestrian statue in the United States. 
The conclusion of the War of Secession brought 
about the rapid development of the city of 
Washington. Also, the time had come when the 
glad hearts of the people were in the mood to set 
up memorials to recent heroes. As a conse- 
quence, circles and squares were quickly popu- 
lated by bronze soldiers on foot and on horse- 
back. 

As the improvement of Washington proceeds, 
almost every group of men with a hero desires 
to find a place for him in Washington. Portrait 



218 




\ lEW ui ;Hi, Mall Svmem. iiliuu;. the actu.il relations existing between the Capitol, Wabhington Monument, and Lincoln 
Memorial, and between the White House, the Washington Monument, and the Memorial Site to be developed; also showing the Ana- 
costia Water Park on the right, the connection between Potomac Park and Rock Creek Park on the left, and the proposed memorial 
bridge across the Potomac. 




East Potomac Park, Created by Dredging the Potomac River and Now Awaiting Develotment. — The view shows the 
Tidal Basin, a portion of West Potomac Park, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing on the left, and the White House projiagating 
gardens and greenhouses in the foreground. Taken from the top of the Washington Monument. — Courtesy of the National Commis- 
sion of Fine Arts. 



219 




From a Photograph of the Model Showim. ihi I'ltornsFn Dk^mopment of 




I MiiN SoiARE. — I he proposed approach to the Capitol from the west. A study based on L'Enfant's plan of 1791 approved by 
I'resident Washington. The Botanic Garden at present occupies this area. Courtesy of the National Commission of Fine Arts 



220 



)TOMAC • K.I YL)^. 




East Potomac Park. — Design prepared by the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds 




View of the Moni'Ment Gardens. — The central pool in front of the iii(Hiunit.nt is on the axis of the White House. In 1901 the 
axis of the Mall was changed to bring the Washington Monument in line with the dome of the Capitol and to bring the Monument 
gardens into proper relations with the White House. The National Museum, the Agricultural Department Buildings, Freer .Art Gallery, 
and the Lincoln Memorial, have been located in accordance with the new axis. Courtesy of the National Commission of Fine Arts, 

221 



THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS 



statues, like portrait paintings, are interesting 
to the family, but are rarely works of art. The 
rule should be laid down, and vigorously 
enforced, that no statue or memorial shall be 
located in Washington unless such statue or 
memorial is a distinct contribution to the general 
scheme of the development of the city and adds an 
artistic element thereto. 

Washington needs fountains, just as Rome 
did, and a memorial may properly and with 
advantage take the form of a fountain. There 
are now two such fountains in Washington, and 
soon there will be a third and perhaps a fourth. 
Both are in themselves works of art and en- 
hance the attractiveness ot the city as well as 
honor the men whose names are connected 
with them.. Memorials may also take other 
forms that express artistic conceptions. The 



subjects of these memorials should be limited, 
however, to persons whose reputations are 
national in character and high in quality. 
Congress should be very jealous as to the ad- 
mission of candidates for this particular form 
of immortality. 

The foregoing are some ot the problems which 
readily suggest themselves in connection with 
the development of Washington. It would be 
quite easy to multiply the number several times. 

The one object to be kept in mind constantly 
and rigorously is the ideal development of the 
National Capital, typifying the aspirations of 
the people, and the achievements of the Na- 
tion, so expressed as to make the city of W'ash- 
ington a unified, dignified, and impressive work 
of art. 




Memorial Founimn 1 niarKK in McMillan Park, 
Washington 
Erected by citizens of Michigan in honor of James McMillan, 
Senator from Michigan, 1 889-1 902. Herbert Adams, Sculptor; 
Ch.-irles A. Piatt, Architect. The design of the fountain was 
passed upon by the Commission of Fine Arts. A type of 
memorial suited to the development of the District of Columbia. 




The Ml;.!i)i.i..i. 10 Francis Davis Millet anu 

Archibald W. Butt 

h. type of memorial adapted to the adornment of the 

National Capital. Daniel C. French, Sculptor; Thomas Hastings, 

Architect. — Courtesy of the National Commission of Fine .^rts. 



222 




New Hampshire Avenue in Early Spring 



223 




Magnolias, Ivorv-VVhite and Coral-Fink, with a Background of Delicate Poplar Green 



224 




The Enchantress of Washington is Springtime, Who Wraps the Capitol in a Cloud of Shimmering Green 



225 




The Mansion in Georgetown Known as Tudor Place. — Designed by Dr. William Thornton, the architect ot the Capitol and 

1)1 the Octagon House. 



226 




On the Stucco Walls of Tudor Place the Morning Sun Weaves a Fleeting Pattern of Branch and Twig 



227 




The Simple Dignity of the iJ.ws when Georgetown Ijiored across Kdck Creek to Where Washington Was to 

Rise from the Sloping Plain beside the Potomac 



228 




There Are a Hundred Frames of Leaf and Bough in Which One May Set the Capitol 



229 




Changeless, Yet Ever Changing! Wonderful bv Day— More Wonderful on a Starry Night! 



230 




Solemn, Dignified, Serene! Sometimes it Seems the Symbol of an Infinite Patience with the 

Transient Vanities of Men 



231 





Like a Beneficent Sentinel Recalling Men to the Loftiness of Ihat Pukpose Which a Grateful 

Nation Has Here Enshrined 



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